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Monday, March 19, 2012

For those who may have been following Greg's entries over the past few weeks you would be hard pressed not to see a theme: WWII tanks - lots of them. This time Greg sends us a selection of excellent German Panthers that he's added to his growing collection.

Take it away Greg:

'Ok, some more product from Plastic Soldier Company, in this case some Panthers. Like the other PSC boxes, you get five vehicles and are spoiled for options. You can make and of the D, A or G variants. The only feature missing is zimmerit finish.'

'The weaknesses of this are similar to the T-34s. The detail is a touch soft. The tracks are a touch fiddly. And the models feel light for war gaming figures. Also, I believe they may have made some mistakes on their instruction sheet - but I think only the hard core Panzer aficionados and TMP anoraks will notice.'

'I did one tank up as an early model "D" variant, and the balance together as a late war platoon with one "A" variant and three "G" variants. The early model tank got a Kursk timeframe camo pattern, and I tried a late war "ambush" style pattern for the other four.'

'I used decals from Battlefront for the tactical numbers and crosses. For the four tanks in late war camo I also tried to get fancy and used decals for the divisional insignia of the 20th Panzer division, a formation that fought on the Eastern front until it was crushed late in the war by a Soviet offensive ("Bagration" I think). It was fun to use the decals, but in the end you can hardly see them.'

'I am really, really liking the Plastic Soldier Company vehicles! I am looking at adding another box of Panthers (and many more T-34s) as I pile up more 15mm stuff...'

Beautiful work Greg. I really like the dot pattern ambush scheme you've done with those late war cats. These five models will give Greg 50 points, placing his total past the 1K mark - Congratulations!

Miles sends in this, his final entry to the Challenge, which is a pleasant surprise considering the amount of time he's been dedicating to coach his son's robotic projects.

From Miles:

Here are my last submissions. While they are all 28mm they're a bit eclectic in nature. First up is a four figure command stand for my Dacian army. All the 3 of the figures are from Warlord (King Decebalus, his Shaman and the dead Roman). The fourth figure is from Wargame Foundries Dacian command range.

Next up are of two Successor War Elephants that I purchased from Sgt Major Miniatures. They were a lot of fun to build and paint and represent the first entry in an eventual Successor army (probably Seleucid). I have some boxes of Immortal Greeks to throw into the mix there. Each Elephant has three figures and I'll let you figure out the point total for the beasts themselves! I put the crew on a magnetized base to make them easier to switch out with other figures (say romans) to have the Elephants perform double duty. I really like these models and will likely get some more as no ancient army can have too many Elephants!

Lastly, is a set of 20 28mm US paratroopers also from Warlord. These were sitting in my primed pile, and after the Elephants I needed a bit of a break.

Excellent stuff, Miles! I really like how you did the skin tone on the elephants - they are very... well, leathery! I'm giving Miles 200 points for this group - well done.

Chris sends pics of his wonderful Dark Age Irish warband for use with SAGA.

I'll let Chris describe his entries:

'Since it was St Paddy's day on Saturday, I thought I would finish off my SAGA Dark Ages Irish! They were all finished up on St Paddy's day, but due to having a Stag party at a brewery, photos were a long time coming!'

'First up is the warlord, Cu Eion with his two retainers. The miniatures are from Crusader, and I think they look lovely! The poor dead Saxon is a plastic from Gripping Beast, tragically he seems to have lost his head in the excitement. The flag is also from Gripping Beast, I think it suits him nicely. I made the decision early on that nobility would have tartan patterns (and was angry at myself ever since), but here it looks pretty sharp I think.'

Next up, is two units of four Irish Nobles from Crusader Miniatures. Now, each model has his own tartan, being nobles they would have their own individual patterns which were representative of their household. The designs themselves came from a google search into Irish tartans, so each tartan pattern is historic. These guys were exceptionally fun to paint, I did them in batches of two, otherwise I would have lost it while painting the tartan! I also had to ban myself from painting them after 8pm at night, any later and the lines started to get wonky.....

'Then comes my first and second unit of Warriors. These guys are again Crusader, with a few weapon swaps from Gripping Beast plastics. They all share the same colour palatte, just to keep them looking a bit more "peasanty" compared to the bright and colourful nobles. The key colour obviously being Irish Green! There are two warrior units, the first is "Shirts" and the second is "Skins" so I can tell them apart!'

'Next is my third unit of warriors- what Irish army would be complete without Irish Wolfhounds? These dogs are reputed to ALWAYS follow Irish armies into battle, in fact the title of the warlord "Cu" means dog, and is a term of honour. These pups are more Crusader miniatures, and will be split between the two Warrior units to make them into units of 12.'

'Then it is my last point of my warband, the levies. I decided to have my levy as the usual hangers on of an army, in this case, the women and children! The models come from Crusader and Warlord Games, and they are some of my favourites of the whole army! Which is why I have given you about 5 photos of them. My favourites are the small kids throwing rocks, the woman with her baby (take your child to work day), then of course the mandatory "woman with severed head"! Tim already did a wonderful job on tartan for her, so I kept her in keeping with the rest of the unit of levy, opting for lots of browns with very few greens opting usually to have their hair as the contrasting colour- fiery Irish red for a few! These fierce Gaelic ladies are also my only entry for Sarah's Choice, so hopefully there is one in there that she really likes! I know I am really happy with them. Ironically, these ladies are the only people in the entire army to actually be wearing shoes....'

Beautiful work, Chris! I especially like the hounds and the villagers (I bet you that they will turn out to be the nasty ones in your games). This very characterful warband will give Chris 240 points. Great work!

Note: Chris also sent a few pictures of the Viking he painted up for me. I've decided not to show it here, favouring instead to feature a collective blog-post on all the vikings done for me in a week or so. This being said, all of the Challengers will see that I've added additional points to your standing scores to reflect my Viking 'levy'. Thanks again to you all!